Passenger conveyors, such as escalators and moving walkways, have a continuously looping pathway flanked by railings called balustrades. These balustrades have moving handrails that slide along the balustrade at the same speed as the continuously looping pathway. At the ends of the conveyors, the handrails typically pass over curved newels. The curvilinear profile of the newel makes it difficult to maintain tension in the handrail while minimizing friction. Solutions for moving the handrail over the curved newel have included using a large rotating wheel, such as a flywheel, or using a plurality of roller bearings along a curvilinear profile.
Where the roller bearing solution has been used, the roller bearings need to be maintained in contact with the handrail as the handrail moves over the curved newel. The roller bearings typically are retained in a newel guide that matches the profile of the curved newel. Each bearing is pinned into a hole drilled into the newel guide. These holes need to follow the curvilinear profile of the newel guide, which makes manufacturing these guides difficult. Because difficult manufacturing techniques are involved in constructing the roller bearing and newel guide assemblies, the quality of these assemblies often suffers. Furthermore, as a result of wear, contamination, and various other factors, roller bearings have a limited lifetime and eventually need to be replaced. When the bearings are replaced, the entire roller bearing and newel guide assembly must be removed and replaced. The removal and replacement of the damaged roller bearing and newel guide assembly is very expensive and inefficient, especially when only one roller bearing needs replacement.